Aug 16, 2016

Light & Sound Of Mogadishu

There was a time in the 70s when Mogadishu was the coolest place in
Africa. It was a city of whitewashed coral houses, colonial arcades on
tree-lined boulevards and Italian Art Deco cafes looking over a
cobalt-blue sea.

And it was funky. Young women in miniskirts strolled alongside older women in billowing direh. Young dudes in bell bottoms and sporting serious Afros, strutted past groups of men in mabwis
kilts and white skull caps. And the local bands – inspired by James
Brown, The Doors and Santana – were laying down some of the heaviest
organ-led funk on the continent.

Sadly, that Mogadishu is long gone. But its spirit lives on in this collection of 45s just released by Afro7 Records.

The singles were originally released by the local Light & Sound
label. The label was an off-shoot of the ‘Light & Sound’ electric
appliance shop, both owned by local entrepreneur Ali Hagi Dahir. Not
only could Light & Sound sell you the record player, they could sell
you the LP to play on it as well.
The recording studio sat in a back room just off the main sales
floor. It was the first privately owned studio in Somalia. Unlike the
State-owned studios at Radio Mogadishu, here musicians were free to
experiment and get into their own groove.

The best tracks from the time are built around the deep groves of
Ahmed Naalji and his super-tight Sharero Band. Naalji cut his teeth
playing with the Radio Mogadishu Orchestra, but soon became frustrated
by the style of music they were forced to play.

It wasn’t long before he started his own band. Originally called
‘Gemini’, they were soon known as the Sharero Band, and shamelessly
copied the heavy funk coming out of America at the time. They quickly
become the hottest band in Mogadishu performing every weekend at the
Jazeera nightclub in the south of the city, the Juba nightclub in the
centre and the Al-Curuba nightclub in the iconic hotel of the same name.

This particular release is the first from a new label, Afro7 Records. It’s an off-shoot of the popular website, Afro7.net, which has become the go-to place on the Internet for East African music.
It’s an album of two halves – the first featuring funkier stuff from
the Sharero Band, the second focusing on the more traditional sounds
from Magool, the biggest female Somali artist of her time.
Personally, I would have loved an entire album of the grinding
keyboards and wah wah guitar of the Sharero band. But with Mogadishu
Light & Sound only ever pressing 150 copies of each their singles, I
understand that they may be difficult to lay hands on.

So I’m simply thankful for Side A. And know it’s going to get a bit of a workout over the months to come.

(Just one more thing: I’m not sure what the sources were for these
songs – I can’t imagine they’d be great – but the mastering is
excellent. The artwork is topnotch too. So well done Afro7!)

Blue and White, the colors of the Somali flag, Blue and White, the
colors of Mogadishu. This city, that over the last seventeen years has
become a symbol of anarchy and suffering, was once one of East Africa’s
most appealing capitals. Friends and colleagues who lived in Mogadishu
in the early 1970s remember a city of whitewashed corral houses, with
Arabic arches and elaborately carved rosettes, of Italian art-deco cafes
and colonial administrative buildings, a city of tree shaded
boulevards, and the cobalt blue of the Indian Ocean. They remember a
city where young women in miniskirts strolled alongside older women in
colorful and billowing Direh, where young dudes grew Afros and strutted,
in bell bottoms, past groups of men in ma’awis kilts and white
skullcaps. Today, living far from Mogadishu, these friends and
colleagues feed their memories with a steady diet of thirty-year old
recordings by their favorite poets and singers from ‘back home’.

These rich memories, and reveries, of the early 1970s are captured in
this set of 45s on the ‘Light & Sound’ label from Mogadishu. The
label was an offshoot of the successful ‘Light & Sound’ electronic
appliance store located in the center of the city. The store, which
shared a building with the famous ‘Cinema Hamar’ (which was the first
enclosed movie theater in Mogadishu), and the label, were both owned by
Dahir Omar. The recording studio was located in a back room off the main
sales floor, and may have been the first private recording studio in
Somalia (at the time most recordings were made in the studios of Radio
Mogadishu or Radio Hargeysa). Today, both the store and the ‘Cinema
Hamar’ are closed. I do not know how many singles were released on
‘Light & Sound’ (I have not yet been able to track down Dahir Omar,
or anyone who worked at the store), but the 45s below represent some of
Somalia’s most loved artists.

Blue and White, the colors of the Somali flag, Blue and White, the
colors of Mogadishu. This city, that over the last seventeen years has
become a symbol of anarchy and suffering, was once one of East Africa’s
most appealing capitals. Friends and colleagues who lived in Mogadishu
in the early 1970s remember a city of whitewashed corral houses, with
Arabic arches and elaborately carved rosettes, of Italian art-deco cafes
and colonial administrative buildings, a city of tree shaded
boulevards, and the cobalt blue of the Indian Ocean. They remember a
city where young women in miniskirts strolled alongside older women in
colorful and billowing Direh, where young dudes grew Afros and strutted,
in bell bottoms, past groups of men in ma’awis kilts and white
skullcaps. Today, living far from Mogadishu, these friends and
colleagues feed their memories with a steady diet of thirty-year old
recordings by their favorite poets and singers from ‘back home’.

These rich memories, and reveries, of the early 1970s are captured in
this set of 45s on the ‘Light & Sound’ label from Mogadishu. The
label was an offshoot of the successful ‘Light & Sound’ electronic
appliance store located in the center of the city. The store, which
shared a building with the famous ‘Cinema Hamar’ (which was the first
enclosed movie theater in Mogadishu), and the label, were both owned by
Dahir Omar. The recording studio was located in a back room off the main
sales floor, and may have been the first private recording studio in
Somalia (at the time most recordings were made in the studios of Radio
Mogadishu or Radio Hargeysa). Today, both the store and the ‘Cinema
Hamar’ are closed. I do not know how many singles were released on
‘Light & Sound’ (I have not yet been able to track down Dahir Omar,
or anyone who worked at the store), but the 45s below represent some of
Somalia’s most loved artists.

‘Shimbir Yohou’ is one of Magool’s most famous recordings from the
1970s. Addressing herself to a little bird, she sings, ‘where do you
fly? Do you serve the people, or do you just follow the air streams? Can
you take a message for me? I am lost and tired. Little bird can you
find your way? If I tell you where to go, can you take a message for
me?’

Hibbo Nuura, who today lives in Rochester, Minnesota, and has been
performing for almost three decades, made some of her earliest
recordings for the ‘Light & Sound’ label. Born in the Northeastern
city of Boorama, she grew up in Mogadishu, and started singing at the
age of 7. In 1970, when she was only 14 years old, the singer and
composer Ahmed Rabsha discovered Hibbo, and three years later, he
brought her to the ‘Light & Sound’ recording studio.

Ahmed Rabsha was born in Mogadishu in 1945, and started singing when
he was only 13 years old. He made his public debut in 1963, performing
at weddings and parties, and six years later formed his first group,
‘The Soul Full Five’. In 1970, he was hired as a music teacher at the
Institute for Traditional Arts in Mogadishu. One of his first
responsibilities was to recruit talented young female singers and teach
them a new repertoire of patriotic songs (General Mohammed Siad Barre
had taken power in 1969, and was just kicking off his ‘social
revolution’). In 1974, Rabsha won a scholarship to study music in the
Sudan, and by the end of the decade he had moved to Dubai, where he
trained the Police Orchestra. He spent the last years of his life in
London working on a history of Somali music. He passed away last fall.

This duo with Ahmed Rabsha, which was released back in 1973, was
Hibbo’s second recording. She described this music to me as Somali
Rumba.

These next four tracks are built on the deep-grooves of Ahmed Naaji
and his great ‘Sharero Band’. The Naaji family is from the Benadir
ethnic minority, who have roots in Yemen and the Persian Gulf, and who
were some of Mogadishu’s earliest residents. In the early 1970s, Ahmed,
who for many years was a member of the Radio Mogadishu orchestra, formed
a band to perform a new style of Somali music; one that was inspired by
Santana, The Doors, and James Brown.

His new group was originally called ‘Gemini’, but by the early 1970s
it was going by the name ‘Sharero band’. The core of the group consisted
of Ahmed on keyboards, Ali Naaji on bass guitar, Anter Naaji on drums,
Said Abdallah on lead guitar, and Mohammed Abadallah ‘Jeeri’ on lead
vocals. They performed most weekends at the Jazeera nightclub in
southern Mogadishu, at the Juba nightclub in central Mogadishu, or at
the Al-Curuba nightclub, located in the majestic Al-Curuba hotel. The
group split up some time in the 1980s. Today, Ahmed Naaji lives in
Yemen, and continues to perform throughout the Somali Diaspora, Ali
Naaji lives in Denmark, and a new generation of Naajis is making music
in Toronto.

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